New idea

No, not the biggest selling weekly magazine for women in Australia, but a thing that has sprung up in my brain. And it may well result in the writing of a new novel. I'm going to let it simmer for a few more weeks until I get some other projects out of the way, but I already have the working title (Commune), genre (sci-fi/horror) and the main characters in place.

Failed to mention yesterday that I sent off a 600 word piece called 'From The Vampire Film Review' to Blade, Blood & Thruster, which publishes humorous and satirical SF/horror/fantasy. I got the idea for 'FTVFR' while on the toilet (an inordinate number of my ideas come to me there – Sigmund Freud would have had a field day) and hammered it out in about an hour. Not only was it a joyously spur-of-the-moment thing, it combined my experience as a film writer with my love of vampire lore and disdain for those who don't like Jackass. 'FTVFR' is nothing if not original.

Work on 'The Barber' continues. Three short scenes are still to be written. I suspect it has a certain literary quality that very few of my stories do - which may explain why I have so often felt disorientated during its composition. It puts me in mind of Stephen King's recent tendency towards 'mainstream' stories (an impudent comparison if ever there was one!).